Transport plan comes off the rails as major delays forecast
Thursday March 06 2008
NOT one of the flagship public transport projects supposed to be finished this year under the Government's Transport 21 plan will be completed on time.
The huge programme, costing taxpayers a total of €34bn over its lifetime, will instead be delayed for years -- one project, the Luas Dublin city centre link-up due to be up and running within months, has not even started.
The Metro is also among the 13 major public transport projects which have been delayed, it was revealed yesterday.
The plan, which includes other minor schemes, was launched with much fanfare by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern two years ago.
The projects given an official completion date of 2008 which will not now be met are the joining up of the Tallaght and Sandyford Luas Lines in Dublin city centre; the Luas extensions from Connolly station to the docklands and from Tallaght to Citywest; the Cork commuter rail service to Midleton and the Western Rail Corridor from Ennis to Athenry.
Work has not even started on the Luas link-up in Dublin city centre. These projects have now been given revised completion dates, it was revealed yesterday in the Transport 21 Update report published by Transport Minister Noel Dempsey. He said that:
> No new date has been given for the Dublin city centre Luas join-up.
> The Luas extension to the docklands is delayed from 2008 until 2009.
> The Luas to Citywest is delayed until from 2008 to 2010.
> The Midleton rail line is delayed from 2008 until 2009.
> The Ennis to Athenry line has no finish date.
Completion
Other major projects which have had their completion dates put back, some by several years, include:
> The Metro from the city centre to Dublin Airport ( put back from the stated completion date of 2012 to 2013).
> Phase one of the Navan rail line (back from 2009 to 2010).
> M3 motorway (back from 2009 to 2010).
> Dublin city centre rail resignalling (back from 2009 to 2011).
> Limerick Southern Ring Road (back from 2009 to 2010).
The report also reveals that last year €43.2m was transferred out of the public transport and regional airports cash allocations to the roads budget.
This was due to some land acquisition not proceeding at the anticipated rate, non-completion of agreed works at Derry Airport and slower than anticipated progress on regional airports. The report says this money will be put back into public transport later in the lifetime of the project.
Mr Dempsey, who revealed he spends two hours stuck in traffic every morning getting from his home in Trim, Co Meath, to the city centre, said he was not concerned about the slippage on the project timelines.
Although he said the completion dates handed out at the launch of Transport 21 were "indicative", the document clearly states these are "completion dates for selected major projects".
He said what concerned him was getting all of the projects in Transport 21 delivered by 2015, when the programme is due to wind up.
He said that 600km of the planned 738km of major inter-urban routes were now either open to traffic or under construction. They would all be completed by 2010.
Asked about concerns raised by several motorists who ended up going down the wrong side of the road after being confused by signage at roundabouts and major junctions, the minister said he did not accept there was inadequate signage on the main national roads.
However, he admitted that there were problems with signage on local county and regional roads.
"When I drive around my own county [Meath] I wouldn't know where I was going if I didn't know the roads," he said.
Mr Dempsey said that all of the major road projects were being delivered on time and within budget and there had been an 82pc increase on public transport projects last year.
- Treacy Hogan Environment Correspondent
